By Evan Butow
Great Valley High School has many student musicians. There are choirs, orchestra, and bands, vocalists, and music classes. Some are novice, some competent, and others are truly talented. Some of those exceptional students not only play well but they go above and beyond and write their own music. And while I love to write, I could never fathom writing music. So, I sat down with one such student, Tyler Detulleo, to rack his brain about his ability to write music.
Q: Do you consider yourself more of a composer, rather than a traditional singer-songwriter?
A: Yeah, I do. I think the difference between composition and something like songwriting is in how you write it down. In composition, you write something down on notation software. I use Sibelius, which is a notation software that lets me make actual sheet music. Like writing, all music is just the same process, it is just how it is presented to the world. Singer-songwriters will write their chords and lyrics on paper; I tend to notate it and give it to performers so they can play it back for me. So, yeah, I would consider myself a composer.
Q: Who are your musical influences? What about their music influences you? And, how does it show up in your work?
A: So, I’d like to be a film composer one day. I do a lot of textural writing, and I try to do a lot of storytelling, that comes from Hans Zimmer. However, I think all music is related; any musician that is really good at telling stories, through any medium, will inspire me.
Another musician I really like is Jacob Collier; he’s the bomb. He does a lot of covers, and I don’t even know how to describe his style; it’s pretty out there. But I guess I would classify him as a jazz pianist. Again, for me it's not really about the medium in which people express their music or tell their stories, it's how effective and how relatable the story is.
Q: Since you mentioned you wanted to be a film composer, then I must ask you about John Williams.
A: John Williams, yes, he was like the first pioneer in film scoring. He wrote a lot more like concert music, while people like Hans Zimmer and more modern film scorers are getting into technology and expressing themselves through texture and creating an environment rather than a theme or melody.
Q: How many pieces have you written, and how much work have you put out?
A: I started composition when I was in tenth grade, and since then I’ve written 2 pieces for choir, a brass quintet, a string quarter, a woodwind trio. I’ve also written for jazz recently. I’m comfortable writing pieces for brass since I play trumpet and piano, and I sing. Obviously, it took some more education to learn what a bassoon can do, cello, double bass, guitar, or harp. And so, being a composer is learning a lot about different instruments and styles and kind of building your own voice from all that knowledge. It is cool because there’s no limit and you can never stop learning; only you really create the limits.
So back to the original question probably like 10 or 15 finished scores. I usually try to have my compositions performed, which gives me a nice educational experience on working with performers. Also, it is rewarding to have a piece played, hearing it expressed to the full extent.
Q: Is there a favorite piece of yours that you have written?
A: I’d say I love all of them, but a lot of the earlier pieces I can learn from like I'll listen to them, and I know where I was coming from when I wrote them, but I would have done this, this, and this differently. As a musician, I listen with a critical ear. However, I would say my string quartet called “Remember.” I love that piece. I’ll tell you a little story.
I was at the Boston Conservatory summer program last summer. It was awesome because I was around so many like-minded individuals. But the coolest part for me was like actually being under the pressure of writing music. We only had two weeks and we wrote three whole pieces and got them recorded. But for the string quartet, I was having a lot of trouble getting inspired. I needed some sort of story or idea—that is how I get inspired. I want to tell through the music—but first I need something to say. Then, after that it’s about melody, harmony and digging into the orchestration. But I found this poem called “Remember” and it was awesome. It was about staying true to your roots and respecting everybody because we all come from the same earth, and we’re all on the same team as humans. The poem gave me hope in terms of humanity, and I thought that was like super cool, and so I wrote a string quarter about it. And like the way I went about it. The creative process made me so happy and the string quarter played it so well. So whenever, I want a good cry, I listen to it.
Q: You just explained your creative process, but could you flesh it out a bit more?
A: I have a journal that I carry around everywhere, and I write down every single thought that comes to my mind, those valuable thoughts about humanity, or literally anything really. It could be a meme that I saw that I thought was funny. Whenever I’m not feeling creative I’ll start from that,
I’m still working on textural writing. When I look at a blank page, it's overwhelming, you know. And so ill limit myself. These journal entries help to get me started.
Q: What’s your favorite genre to compose in, or do you like to compose in all genres?
A: In general, I think genres are limiting. But if I had to pick one, I really like a lot of contemporary, ethereal genres that are rooted in harmony—much like the ballad.
I’ve been trying jazz recently. It has taken me out of my comfort zone but in a fun way. I think the point of what I wanted you to know is that I push the limits; I don’t try to put myself in a box. I just try to tell the story however it flows.
Q: If I was trying to find your music somewhere, where would I find it?
A: I do have a Soundcloud that has most of my compositions on it, it’s just the audio of them. My username is Tylerdetulleo. I also have a YouTube channel under my name.
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If you would like to listen to Tyler’s music, here are two links. Enjoy! Let us support our GV musicians.